This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-3121, filed Jan. 18, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer and a maintenance control method of the same, and more particularly, to an inkjet printer and a maintenance control method of the same informing a user of information about an appropriate time to perform a maintenance operation and of performing the maintenance operation at the appropriate time.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inkjet printer is an apparatus printing an image by ejecting ink on paper in response to input data and usually has a head with a plurality of nozzles ejecting the ink. While the nozzles of the head eject the ink repeatedly during printing, the nozzles sometimes cannot normally eject the ink due to deterioration or other reasons. When one of the nozzles cannot normally eject the ink, the quality of the printing may not be satisfactory, and even a white line appears on a printed image.
To prevent the above malfunction of the nozzles, a maintenance operation of the head is performed. The maintenance, operation includes a spitting operation enabling the nozzles to eject the ink, a wiping operation wiping a residue of the ink on a portion of the nozzles, a capping operation capping the nozzles, and a suction operation drawing the ink from the nozzles. When some or all operations among the above operations are performed, the residue of the ink is removed from the nozzles, and thus the ink is easily ejected through the nozzles.
The above maintenance operation is performed when a certain condition is met. In a conventional inkjet printer, the maintenance operation is performed when power is cut and again supplied, when a user inputs an execution command performing the maintenance operation before printing on each page in a printing operation, and when the user thinks that the printing operation is not performed for a predetermined time period.
A method of performing the maintenance operation is set up differently in accordance with each condition. For example, when the power is supplied, the wiping operation is performed once, the spitting operation is performed several times, and both the wiping and spitting operations are repeated twice. When the user inputs the execution command, the wiping operation is performed once, the spitting is performed several times, and both the wiping and spitting operations are repeated three times. When the printing operation is performed on each page, the wiping operation is performed once, the spitting operation is performed several times, and both the wiping and spitting operations are performed once.
However, according to the conventional maintenance control method, the maintenance operation is performed regardless of a period of the power cut when the maintenance operation is performed at the time of the power supply to the inkjet printer. Thus, there is a problem that an incomplete maintenance operation with less intensity (degree) than actually required may be performed. Accordingly, the printing operation can be performed even in a state that the nozzles are clogged, which causes the deterioration of a printing quality and the waste of paper.
Moreover, when the maintenance operation is performed when required by the user, the user has to know about a non-printing period that the printing operation is not performed so as to perform the actually desired maintenance operation. Furthermore, even if the user knows the non-printing period that the printing operation is not performed, it is hard for the user to recognize an operation degree of the maintenance operation corresponding to the non-printing period. Therefore, an unnecessary maintenance operation might be performed, or the maintenance operation is performed less than actually required.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above and other problems of the related art. Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an inkjet printer and a maintenance control method of the same allowing a user to voluntarily operate a maintenance operation when the user recognizes a need of the maintenance operation by being informed of the need of the maintenance operation of the printer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printer and a maintenance control method of a head of the same capable of preventing an overtime or less time maintenance operation by allowing the maintenance operation to be performed as much as the maintenance operation is actually required.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice.
The above and other objects may be achieved by providing a maintenance control method of a head of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The maintenance control method includes receiving a printing command to perform a printing operation, calculating a time difference between an input time of the printing command and a final time that the printing operation of the inkjet printer has been finally or most recently performed before the printing command is input, and performing at least one of a maintenance operation of the head and a displaying operation displaying a message requesting the maintenance operation when the time difference is greater than a predetermined time period before the printing operation of the inkjet printer is performed in response to the printing command.
The maintenance operation includes at least one of spitting, wiping, capping and suction operations of nozzles in the head. In addition, the predetermined time period is approximately 10 hours.
Additionally, the maintenance control method includes detecting whether an electrical power is supplied to the inkjet printer, and performing the maintenance operation of the head when the supply of the electrical power is detected. Therefore, the maintenance operation is performed in response to the time difference and the power supply.
Moreover, the maintenance operation is performed when an execution command performing the maintenance operation is input from an outside of the inkjet printer after the displaying operation is performed. Accordingly, the user can use the printer more conveniently and efficiently as the maintenance operation is performed when the user receives a message and inputs the execution command voluntarily.
In addition, the greater the time difference is, the greater an intensity (degree) of the maintenance operation is.
The inkjet printer includes a head having a plurality of nozzles ejecting ink, a maintenance unit performing a maintenance operation of the head, an interface receiving printing data and a printing command performing a printing operation from a host, and a control unit calculating a time difference between an input time of the printing command and a final time that the printing operation has been finally or most recently performed by the head when the printing command is input through the interface. The control unit controls the maintenance unit to perform the maintenance operation before the head prints printing data received through the interface when the time difference is greater than a predetermined time period.
Here, the message is displayed on a display unit, and the execution command performing the maintenance operation is input through an input unit.
The maintenance operation is performed as much as the maintenance operation is actually required, and thus, the unnecessary maintenance or less intensified maintenance operation can be prevented. Moreover, the user can easily recognize whether the maintenance operation is required through the displayed message.